The global climate crisis requires immediate and comprehensive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rises "well below" 2°C. The UK has committed to reaching Net Zero by 2050 (Scotland 2045) with several policies proposed to achieve this goal and ambitious aims to decarbonise whole industries. The UK marine environment is expanding its activities and capitalising on blue growth. Here, we review current marine policies in the context of Net Zero and find that, despite the proliferation of Net Zero policies, there are crucial gaps impeding how Net Zero will be achieved in the marine environment. With the increasing demand for ocean space and the transition to Net Zero, conflicts have arisen between the drive for green energy through offshore wind (OSW) and maintaining space for existing marine users. Better protection and restoration of blue carbon sites and environmental protection targets will be required to meet Net Zero but could lead to further spatial squeeze. Synergies between marine sectors have emerged or are being considered, which may reduce tensions as industries look to expand to achieve Net Zero, e.g. OSW accommodating certain types of fishing, decarbonising oil and gas production, and decommissioned oil and gas infrastructure being repurposed for green energy production or carbon capture and storage. As marine industries expand and decarbonise, trade-offs are likely, and it remains to be seen whether Net Zero will be prioritised, or if policy gaps and outdated policies will impact the UK meeting its legal Net Zero obligations.

The burgeoning global plastic crisis necessitates transformative solutions beyond current recycling and disposal methods. This study investigates the ability of wax moth larvae (Achroia grisella) to biodegrade low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polylactic acid (PLA), emphasizing the complex interactions between the physiology of larvae, their gut microbiome, and the plastic degradation process. Using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, Seahorse bioassays, and advanced metabolomic and lipidomic profiling, we demonstrate that plastic consumption is associated with microbial and metabolic restructuring in larvae. LDPE-fed larvae displayed elevated microbial diversity, dominated by Bacillus spp., which correlated with shifts in carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis pathways critical for energy production and detoxification. Conversely, PLA-fed larvae were enriched with Enterococcus spp., linked to oxidative stress mitigation and nucleotide turnover. These diet-induced adaptations, such as the proliferation of Bacillus spp. in LDPE‑fed larvae, known to express alkane‑hydroxylase enzymes that initiate polyethylene depolymerization, and enrichment of Enterococcus spp. in PLA‑fed larvae, linked to ester bond hydrolysis, underscore a symbiotic co-metabolism that may play a contributory role in plastic processing, albeit at the cost of reduced larval growth and suppressed mitochondrial function. By unraveling these complex biological interactions, this study establishes a foundation for harnessing insect-microbiome ecosystems to develop scalable and eco-friendly strategies for plastic waste management. Future research should explore the genetic and enzymatic mechanisms underpinning plastic metabolism in insect-microbiome ecosystems.

One of the leading causes of human subfertility is the continuous decline in semen quality, contributing to a global fertility crisis. Over half of subfertile men suffer from asthenozoospermia and teratozoospermia, with mechanisms still largely unknown. Traditional small noncoding RNA sequencing (sncRNA-seq) primarily targets miRNAs, failing to capture the broader spectrum of small noncoding RNAs (sncRNAs), including abundant transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) and ribosomal RNA-derived small RNAs (rsRNAs). These sncRNAs possess complex RNA modifications and non-canonical terminal structures, impeding their accurate profiling. In this prospective cohort study, we addressed these limitations by combining our state-of-the-art PANDORA-seq with traditional sncRNA-seq, which generated the most comprehensive sncRNA landscape of human sperm from 25 participants with asthenozoospermia, teratozoospermia, or normozoospermia. PANDORA-seq significantly improved the annotation efficiency of sncRNAs and delivered a more detailed characterization for tsRNAs and rsRNAs, which were strongly correlated with key clinical indicators of sperm quality, thereby enhancing our understanding of the landscape of human sperm sncRNAome and its association with male subfertility. Importantly, machine learning with Lasso regression identified specific tsRNA/rsRNA signatures as highly effective clinical biomarkers (AUC ≥ 0.83) for predicting sperm abnormalities, offering significant improvements over World Health Organization-based semen quality assessments and novel insights for clinical diagnosis.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) constitutes a profound global health crisis, necessitating the development of unconventional therapeutic targets. Bacterial reliance on transition metals for metabolism, virulence, and survival creates a conserved, underexploited vulnerability that can be targeted by biomaterials to combat AMR. This review adopts a materials-oriented perspective to unify emerging metal-interfering antimicrobial strategies into three mechanistically distinct paradigms: (i) direct metal toxicity platforms, (ii) nutritional deprivation systems, and (iii) Trojan horse delivery vehicles. For each class, we extract quantitative, biology-derived design rules, such as spatio-temporal release kinetics, thermodynamic metal affinity (lg K), microenvironmental responsiveness, and surface topography matching. Finally, we highlight paradigm-shifting insights into the future of antimicrobial material innovation. We further highlight how artificial intelligence (AI) tools are now enabling de novo targeting of "undruggable" metal transporters, decoupling potency from toxicity, and creating programmable, localized antimicrobial depots. This review bridges metallobiology and biomaterials engineering to provide actionable design guidelines and a forward-looking roadmap for next-generation, resistance-resilient antimicrobial materials.

The global opioid crisis has highlighted substantial differences in prescribing, monitoring, and regulatory practices across health systems. In Costa Rica, comprehensive national data on opioid use have been limited. This study aimed to describe temporal trends in legally prescribed opioid consumption between 2017 and 2024 using nationwide administrative data. A nationwide, retrospective, population-based analysis was conducted using data from the Costa Rican Ministry of Health's narcotics registry. Dispensation records for morphine, methadone, fentanyl, oxycodone, and tapentadol were included. Opioid consumption was standardized to Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) using NIH HEAL conversion factors. Temporal trends were assessed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. A total of 31.9 million opioid dispensations were recorded during the study period. National opioid consumption peaked in 2018 (395.1 million MME), followed by an approximate 70% decline through 2023 and a modest increase in 2024. Consumption of morphine and methadone declined substantially (-72.2% and -82.4%, respectively), while oxycodone and tapentadol showed moderate increases over time. These findings indicate a marked reduction in overall opioid consumption alongside changes in the distribution of use across opioid agents. Between 2017 and 2024, Costa Rica experienced a sustained decline in total opioid dispensing and a redistribution of opioid use across substances. These trends occurred in the context of strengthened regulatory oversight and expanded digital monitoring of controlled substances. While causal relationships cannot be established, the findings provide relevant population-level evidence to support opioid stewardship and inform regulatory and public health strategies in middle-income health systems.

Investigation the epidemiological transition of ebola virus under contagious population with sustainable extended fractional operator.

Immune protection in chickens via lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated VP2 DNA vaccine against very virulent infectious bursal disease virus.

Metal nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy for bacterial eradication: Mechanisms, strategies, and clinical challenges.

From 2008 and 2025, a number of worldwide crises caused considerable fluctuations in the Indian share market. Investor behaviour, market volatility, and general financial stability have all been significantly impacted by events like the Global Financial Crisis (2008), the Eurozone Debt Crisis, the COVID-19 epidemic, the war between Russia and Ukraine, inflationary pressures, geopolitical conflicts, and global economic slowdowns. The goal of the current study is to examine the organism of research on how severely international crises have affected the Indian stock market and to determine the opportunities and difficulties that regular investors encounter in these unpredictable times. This study is descriptive and analytical in nature, and it is solely based on secondary data gathered from books, journals, financial institution reports, regulatory bodies, research papers, and reliable web sources.

Waste management is a crucial task due to its direct impact on environmental sustainability, public health, and resource conservation. Rapid urbanization, population growth, and industrialization have led to a significant increase in the volume and complexity of waste generated by municipal, biomedical, electronic, and hazardous waste. Therefore, technology-based waste classification is needed to address the global waste management crisis. However, deploying an accurate classification model on resource-constrained hardware demands a careful balance between model accuracy and overall computational efficiency. This research employs an EfficientNet-B1 + Transformer model along with Cosine Annealing Learning Rate Scheduling (CALRS) and optimized Label Smoothing (LS) techniques, and this method is known as EN-CALS. This unified pipeline is trained on six classes of waste dataset of 2,527 images (cardboard, glass, metal, paper, plastic, and trash). It was compared with several fine-tuned models such as ResNet-50, ViT-B/16, MobileNet-V2, MobileNet-V3-Small, MobileNet-V3-Large, ShuffleNet-V2, EfficientNet-B0/B2, and DenseNet-121. Results show us that EfficientNet-B1 with these optimizations achieves the best test accuracy of 93.68. Large-scale architectures like ResNet-50 with 87.37% accuracy, ViT-B/16 with 61.58% accuracy and DenseNet121 with 92.63% accuracy, show clear overfitting and are unsuitable for the target edge hardware. The ablation studies proved the importance of individual components in EN-CALS for the waste classification system. This research establishes a reusable model template and deployment pipeline for waste classification and is designed to scale as better datasets and hardware become feasible.

Sexual abuse is a global public health crisis impacting millions across all demographics. In forensic evaluations, relying only on anogenital injuries may create a diagnostic gap, as their absence does not exclude abuse. This highlights the importance of including a comprehensive intraoral assessment. Even though palatal lesions do not exclusively indicate sexual trauma, they remain a crucial yet frequently overlooked component when evaluating suspected oral sexual contact. Clinically, fellatio-associated trauma typically manifests at the junction of the hard and soft palate as erythema, petechiae, or purpura. These lesions are forms of vascular alterations caused by a combination of localized negative pressure and direct mechanical trauma, and they generally resolve spontaneously within 48h to two weeks. To investigate, a systematic literature review, registered on PROSPERO, and following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, was conducted across databases including PubMed, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Scopus and Google Scholar. The initial search yielded 480 records, resulting in 30 studies for final qualitative synthesis. The analysis focused specifically on clinical examination of the victim of sexual abuse, clinical findings in fellatio-associated palatal erythema, and diagnostic considerations for these lesions. This review suggests that palatal lesions are potentially important yet frequently overlooked in sexual abuse evaluations. Therefore, a systematic and well-documented oral examination may provide additional clinical information within the overall forensic assessment of vulnerable individuals.

Lung cancer constitutes a global health crisis that leads to mortality. The cellular signaling and cell cycle are disrupted in lung cancer. From time immemorial, plants have been a major source of medications. Notably, cardiac glycosides (CGs) potently bind to Na+/K+-ATPase in cardiac tissue. CGs show promising potential as anticancer activity. Peruvoside belongs to the cardiac glycosides, Peruvoside derived from Thevetia peruviana. Noteworthy, Peruvoside has shown promising interest due to its powerful effect toward several cancer types. The presented study evaluates Peruvoside's effects on the proliferation as well as cell cycle progression of lung cancer A549 cells to validate its anticancer potential. A549 cells were cultured and allocated into two groups: treated with Peruvoside and an untreated control group. Viability of A549 cells was assessed by WST-8 assay; cell cycle analysis was performed by flow cytometry; CDK6 and cyclin D1 protein expression was determined by Western blot; and real-time PCR analysis was performed to identify the expression of CHK1, CHK2, PI3K, AKT, and mTORgenes. Peruvoside at a concentration of 68.77 nM was associated with a notable anti-proliferative effect and the induction of an apoptotic cascade. Peruvoside induces cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, validated by Western blot and real-time PCR analysis, confirming that inhibition of proteins and genes related to cell cycle progression and expansion of the lung cancer, indicating that Peruvoside has antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects. Within this research, the data showed the arrest of the cell cycle and the inhibition of the proliferation regulatory gene by Peruvoside were associated with suppression of lung cancer survival, proliferation, metastatic dissemination, and promotion of celldeath.

The rapid pace of industrialization and population growth has led to a dramatic increase in the discharge of industrial, dye-laden, and heavy metal-contaminated wastewater, intensifying a global crisis of water pollution and freshwater scarcity. Solar-driven interfacial evaporation has emerged as a promising and sustainable technology for clean water production. However, its practical application is hindered by factors such as salt accumulation and heavy metal buildup. To overcome these limitations, this study presents an environmentally friendly evaporator constructed from lightweight balsa wood. Through a delignification process, we converted the natural wood into delignified wood (DW) featuring a highly hydratable cellulose network with unobstructed vertical channels. Subsequently, a cost-effective and biodegradable photothermal layer was formed on this DW framework via the copolymerization of cuttlefish ink powder (CM) with polydopamine hydrochloride (PDA), yielding the final CPW evaporator. Under 1 sun, the CPW evaporator achieves a high evaporation rate of 2.40 kg m-2 h-1 with an efficiency of 95.8% in a 10 wt % NaCl solution, demonstrating exceptional desalination capability. Moreover, it exhibits outstanding performance in wastewater remediation, efficiently purifying dye-contaminated water, as well as acidic and alkaline solutions, with the collected condensate showing a neutral pH. By integrating green photothermal materials with a rationally designed wood-based structure, this work offers a highly efficient strategy for addressing complex industrial organic wastewater pollution, highlighting its significant potential for practical water treatment applications.

Agricultural sustainability and food security have become increasingly important in the context of global crises and climate change. In this process, the importance of rural areas and agricultural production has been further emphasized, while the efficiency of land use and rural development policies has gained greater significance. In this regard, land consolidation is considered one of the key instruments supporting rural development.This study was conducted in Sulusaray district of Tokat province and aims to examine farmers’ attitudes toward land consolidation practices and the factors influencing these attitudes. The main material of the study consists of primary data obtained through face-to-face surveys conducted with 76 farmers in the study area.According to the findings, the average farm size is 46.0 decares, while the average number of parcels is 5.4. It was found that 47.4% of the farmers reported having knowledge about land consolidation. Findings regarding perceived benefits indicate that farmers evaluate the project positively, particularly in terms of improvements in irrigation and drainage, reduction in the number of parcels, and decreases in production costs. In addition, 67.1% of the farmers were found to support land consolidation practices.The results of the chi-square analysis revealed statistically significant relationships between farmers’ support for land consolidation and both agricultural income level and knowledge level. The findings indicate statistically significant relationships between income level and knowledge of land consolidation, and farmers’ project support status.

Piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution holds significant promise for addressing the global energy crisis by converting mechanical energy directly into chemical fuel. However, developing efficient noble-metal quantum-dot-functionalized piezocatalysts and understanding their underlying mechanisms remains challenging. Herein, a specially designed mechanical energy conversion platform based on the co-catalyst-modified Pd quantum-dots-functionalized bismuth ferrite nanorods (Pd-BFO) is constructed via a facile combined electrospinning-chemical reduction method and tailored for unlocking efficient piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The optimized Pd-BFO with ultra-low loading of 0.5 wt% Pd quantum dot (Pd-QDs) achieves a superior piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of 4253.44 μmol g-1 h-1, outperforming most recently reported piezocatalysts. The exceptional piezocatalytic performance of Pd-BFO is attributed to synergistic effects of the intrinsic ferroelectric of BFO, efficient interfacial charge transfer dynamic, and the abundant reactive sites provided by Pd-QDs. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations reveals that the Pd-QDs optimize the d-band center toward more negative level, thereby lowering the overall Gibbs free energy of hydrogen evolution. These factors collectively facilitate the highly reactive piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution of Pd-BFO. This study provides both theoretical and experimental insights into the facile design of high-performance piezocatalysts via co-catalyst modifying of low loading noble mental quantum-dots, offering a feasible strategy to advance practical piezocatalytic HER.

ABSTRACT This study develops a multi-layer local Gaussian correlation network approach to examine crisis-specific commodity – inflation linkages across the G7 and E7 economies. The empirical results show that mean inflation correlations between the E7 and G7 are lower than within-group correlations, suggesting differences in inflation co-movements between advanced and emerging economies. Energy – inflation linkages are generally stronger than both cross-country inflation linkages and agricultural commodity – inflation associations, with all correlations rising noticeably during major global crises. These patterns also display clear quantile heterogeneity. At the low inflation quantile, commodity – inflation linkages are relatively broad-based across the G7 and E7 economies, whereas they become denser and more concentrated at higher inflation quantiles. Major crises also reshape the network structure in distinct ways. The 2008 crisis is marked by the central role of agricultural commodities, the COVID-19 pandemic by a more balanced energy – agriculture pattern, and the 2022 Russia – Ukraine war by the prominence of the Russia – natural gas linkage. Overall, the results suggest that commodity – inflation linkages are shaped jointly by inflation regimes, commodity characteristics, and crisis-specific structural shocks. The findings also provide useful implications for policymakers in designing tailored response strategies that take account of quantile-dependent risks and event-driven vulnerabilities in global commodity markets.

Preserving nurses' work ability (WA) is essential for healthcare sustainability, especially given the current global workforce crisis and an ageing population. This study aims to assess the prevalence of inadequate WA among hospital nurses and to identify the personal, domestic, and organisational predictors that influence it, focusing on modifiable factors to inform targeted retention strategies. A cross-sectional study was conducted at an Italian university hospital (August-October 2022). Data from 182 nurses were collected during mandatory health surveillance visits using the Work Ability Index (WAI), alongside assessments of socio-demographic, occupational, and extra-work responsibilities (caregiving/education). Multivariable binary logistic regression was performed to identify independent predictors of WA, adjusting for confounders such as BMI and lifestyle factors. Inadequate WA was reported by 44.5% of participants (mean age 45.8±11.1 years). A significant health burden was observed, with 41.8% suffering from musculoskeletal disorders. The regression model (χ2(9)=31.026; p<0.001) revealed that the likelihood of adequate WA decreased significantly with advancing age (OR=0.93 per year; p<0.001) and high extra-work burdens (OR=0.97 per hour; p=0.041). Conversely, satisfaction with working conditions emerged as the primary modifiable protective factor, significantly increasing the likelihood of adequate WA (OR=2.41; p=0.010). No significant associations were found for sex, BMI, or smoking status. Nearly half of the nursing workforce exhibits vulnerable work ability. Findings suggest a detrimental 'double duty' effect where domestic responsibilities and age intersect. Organisational interventions should prioritise work-life balance and improved work climates to mitigate the impact of demographic shifts and preserve workforce sustainability.

The pervasive environmental contamination of microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) has raised significant public health concerns, with the respiratory tract being a critical route of exposure. While a growing body of evidence suggests adverse pulmonary effects, a comprehensive synthesis of systematic reviews (SRs) is lacking. This umbrella review systematically consolidates evidence from published SRs to evaluate the impact of MP and NP exposure on human pulmonary health. Accordingly, a comprehensive literature search was conducted across multiple databases. Fifteen SRs meeting the inclusion criteria were critically appraised using the AMSTAR-2 tool and included for narrative synthesis. The evidence unequivocally links MP/NP exposure to a spectrum of respiratory pathologies. Key determinants of toxicity can include particle size, shape, and polymer chemistry. NPs penetrate deeply into alveoli, causing oxidative stress, inflammation, and translocation, while MPs act as persistent irritants in the airways. Exposure is associated with acute conditions (airway inflammation, alveolar damage) and chronic diseases, including chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation, and pulmonary fibrosis. These effects lead to functional impairments such as reduced gas exchange and a progressive decline in lung function. Urban residents, occupational workers, and children are identified as high-risk populations due to heightened exposure and susceptibility. This synthesis study establishes MPs and NPs as a significant and multifaceted hazard to respiratory health. Addressing the global plastic pollution crisis at its source is paramount for protecting respiratory health.

Global climate crisis and waste disposal costs drive the need for circular industrial models. This study investigates whether industrial symbiosis through co-disposal of papermaking waste and blast furnace slag can convert these materials from waste to resources. Using a system expansion Life Cycle Assessment framework, we assessed alkali-activated mortars based on global warming potential, water footprint, and toxic impacts. Results indicate that high-volume waste substitution significantly improves the material's environmental profile, achieving a net-negative Global Warming Potential of - 7.9kg CO2 eq/m³ and a 129% net environmental benefit for human health damage compared to the baseline. These results occur because the avoidance of landfill-related greenhouse gas emissions and primary material production outweigh the impacts of chemical activation. This study outlines a structured approach to decarbonizing construction materials. It shows how technological innovation can strengthen competitiveness within circular economic systems. This work verifies the technical feasibility of regenerative material strategies and identifies activator optimization as a critical factor for advancing next-generation sustainable materials, thereby offering practical guidance to help industrial sectors meet global sustainability requirements.

Confronting the dual crisis of escalating global protein demand and unsustainable agriculture necessitates transformative solutions. Here, we pioneer evolutionary insights from maize nitrogen optimization via asparagine synthetase (ASNS) to rewire metabolism in Pichia pastoris. Empirically, the tri-copy ASNS strain achieved superior protein titers: 62.48% crude protein, 47.86% total amino acids, and 8.05% branched-chain amino acids, nutritionally surpassing conventional protein sources. Genome-scale modeling and transcriptomic studies provided convergent evidence that ASNS overexpression drove global metabolic rewiring through predicted synergistic coupling between aspartate metabolism and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Mechanistically, ASNS overexpression unlocked a previously uncharacterized nitrogen sensor-regulator circuit by inducing PAS_chr1-1_0158, validated in amplifying intracellular nitrogen flux and driving a self-reinforcing cycle of ammonia assimilation. This work validated evolutionary conservation of nitrogen optimization strategies across kingdoms, established the first scalable blueprint for carbon-nitrogen co-optimized microbial cell factories, decouples sustainable SCP production from agricultural constraints, and offers a scalable solution to the global protein crisis.